Abstract
Publisher Summary This chapter presents an overview of the physiologic changes associated with bed rest and major body injury. Bed rest is routinely, and often casually, prescribed for a wide variety of pathophysiologic states, the rationale being to reduce functional demands on a diseased body. Many studies, utilizing a wide variety of experimental subjects and of protocols, have been undertaken to examine the cardiovascular effects of prolonged immobilization. Many investigators have noted orthostatic intolerance after prolonged bed rest. They attributed this, in part at least, to the intravascular volume depletion, possibly compounded by an increase in venous pooling in the lower extremities because of increased venous compliance after bed rest. In addition to the changes in intravascular volume and venous tone, prolonged recumbency blunts cardiac responsiveness to rapid changes in posture. Bed rest increases the resting pulse from 4 to 15 beats per minute, and after bed rest, there is a more pronounced increase in heart rate with exercise.
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